For decades, perhaps since the advent of television, society has been embroiled in a debate: how much “screen time” is too much? How do we reconcile the often-solitary pursuit of media consumption—watching television and movies, listening to music, and playing video games—with our need to interact with other people? As the “Internet of things” and its plethora of connected devices have become a daily reality, the number of devices that vie for our attention has increased, and with it the need to re-evaluate the ways in which we interact with our devices—and the ways in which we interact with each other.
Technology has become so embedded in our lives and culture that removing it entirely is simply not feasible for most people. The challenge, then, is how to engineer devices to facilitate genuine and engaging interactions between people—both at a distance and in person.
Many of the issues involved are themselves technological. For example, many smaller devices, like smart phones, use the BLUETOOTH® communications protocols for short-range communication with other devices. That short-range communication is usually done with a master-slave configuration and protocol: one device, usually the more capable one, acts as the master and the other one acts as the slave device. The master directs and performs all of the substantive computing, while the slave usually provides simple input or output with limited bi-directional communication.
In this fashion, one might connect headphones, a car audio system, or a keyboard to a smart phone or tablet computer. Most devices are simply not equipped or programmed for full peer-to-peer communication with computing and substantive functions performed by both devices.
Beyond communication protocols, any designer of a device for personal use has the task of creating a capable, engaging device in a package that is lightweight and aesthetically pleasing enough to encourage use. Of all personal devices, jewelry and other small, wearable items present some of the sharpest challenges, because these items are traditionally among the smallest and are thus most subject to technical and size limitations, as well as aesthetic considerations. Simply put, most people will not wear a piece of jewelry that is unattractive, too large, or too heavy—whether or not that piece of jewelry is a device with interesting technical capabilities.